Knights salvage home stand

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Ryan Pyette, QMI Agency

Dec 12, 2010

, Last Updated: 7:00 PM ET

Saturday, the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds spent some down time in London shopping.

Sunday, though, there were no two-point gifts from the struggling Knights.

London forward Chris DeSousa handed the Hounds a lump of coal in the form of a third-­period, shorthanded, game-winner on a nifty backhand to lead the Knights to a 4-2 victory before 8,910 at the John Labatt Centre.

“Jocko (London assistant coach Jacques Beaulieu) told us before the game these are two teams bleeding and one of us is going to stop the bleeding,” DeSousa said. “We didn’t want to be cut again and bleed anymore.”

The Knights salvaged what had been shaping up to be a horrific three-loss home stand. The Soo, still mired in the OHL’s Western Conference basement, lost all three road games this trip and now four in a row.

They also had their team bus vandalized again in London, just like the 2007 playoffs.

DeSousa capitalized on Soo defenceman Brandon Archibald’s mishit and roared in to beat Hounds goalie Chris Perugini up high, a third-period theme for the Knights shooters.

“I double hit the puck,” Archibald said. “I have to play it better there, but it’s one of those things we’ve seen happen to us a lot this season. We came out and they outshot us something like 4-1 in the first period (20-5) and it’s been like that all year.”

The Knights stopped their bleeding, but not the hurting..

Vladislav Namestnikov, due to meet the Russians in New York State in a week for a world junior tryout, slammed head-first into the end boards in the second period and had to be helped off the ice. The Knights won’t know the severity of his injury until Monday.

Big Montreal Canadiens defenceman Jarred Tinordi kept the Hounds’ late comeback at bay by blocking a shot in front on a tender spot on his arm. He winced in pain but his proud goalie Michael Houser patted him on the head for preventing a likely goal.

“I got the puck right where there’s no protection,” Tinordi said, flexing his arm. “Houser said, ‘Thanks, Tinner. Nice save.’ That’s what I’m there for — to stop the puck from going in.”

For once, they made someone else feel the pain. The Knights had been handing out too many presents lately to visiting teams.

It’s not like it was in the days when the late Bert Templeton described visits to the old London Gardens plaza as “two points and a bag of groceries” but it was heading that way.

“For a while, teams have been coming in here feeling like it would be easy,” London forward Daniel Erlich said, “and we want to change that. We want to at least keep the games close and give ourselves a chance to win. We’ve been struggling on offence lately.”

Boston Bruins pick Jared Knight, who said he doesn’t want to be traded anywhere this year, now leads London with 13 goals. Seth Griffith just won the rest of the Knights’ turtle race to 10 with his insurance marker.

The Hounds left town, once again, unhappy and looking for answers. “We didn’t come out with any jump,” head coach Denny Lambert said. “We killed some early penalties, got some goals later on, but we didn’t have the legs. We played better in Windsor and Plymouth, we had a day off, a team meal, and to come out with no jump in here, it’s a tough loss for us.”

The Hounds went through their soul-searching time early this season. They were hoping to catch the Knights in that same vulnerable state.

Instead, they helped provide London a much-needed pre-holiday band-aid.

“Because of what this team went through early on,” Soo assistant coach Pat Curcio, the former Knights assistant, said of the Hounds, “it matured in two months what would normally take two years.”